Contrary to his expectations, Nathalia was the first one to get up. “This was worth my while,” she decided and lightly tapped the nearby wall. Rock liquified and parted, soon letting volcanic light flood in.
The intensity surprised John – as far as his ntal layout of the battlefield had gone, the cave had been near the centre of the structure. A map that was entirely useless, when in the domain of a goddess, he quickly realized. The island had already beco undone and what little of it remained was drifting back to the shore.
“Did you move the island while I was trying to fuck your brains out?” John asked while getting up.
Nathalia raised an eyebrow, as if that question did not even deserve to be uttered. “You believe above average fulfilnt will make unaware of the ongoings in my own Sanctum?” That answered that well enough.
Rather than risk upsetting Nathalia with more of his words, he turned his attention to the windows that had popped up.
‘The main thing is probably that it makes the necklace that much better,’ John thought with a worried look at his HP bar.
“Now, the other hand,” Nathalia instructed.
“Can we postpone that a bit?” John asked.
“Don’t be a weakling, John,” Salamander said.
“I agree with the nuisance,” Nathalia added, a hint of disappointnt in her eyes. “You got through the first without screaming, you will survive a second ti.”
“No, actually, I literally won’t,” John stated and explained, “This reduced my health to 23, another experience like that and I die.”
Awkward silence. John could see the idea of just doing it anyway go through the dragoness’ head. Thankfully, it did not manifest into action. “I don’t have ti to wait for you, is there a way to heal you?”
“Well, if I had a level-up…” John didn’t even have the chance to end his sentence before Nathalia bit his hand. The quick and painful way to acquire a dium to connect with him.
“That did it?” Nathalia asked just to be sure, already grabbing his left hand.
“Ye-aaaaaaaaaah,” John shouted in pain as the searing sensation returned. His flesh was burned right off the bone, as the ring ford around his finger. He was left with a perfect copy of the other ring, pitch-black, the shard of Nathalia glinting at the top.
“There, now you are marked as mine, From now until forever, all shall know to whom you belong,” Nathalia said with a satisfied smirk.
For a second, John contemplated an unwise action and then, despite his better judgent, decided to go through with it. “Actually….” He opened up his inventory and just pulled the rings off their respective slots and into his inventory. Both vanished from where they were, not even leaving scars behind.
Nathalia’s smile froze and died. Arms were folded underneath her scaled breasts. An annoyed tapping of her fingers against her elbow reverberated with impossible volu in the air. “You would refuse my mark, John Newman?” she finally hissed a warning.
“I thought we agreed that I’m not your property.”
“We agreed that I will let you go free to see you grow into an ever more worthy lay.”
“Then let be clear: I’m not your property,” John pushed the envelope. He had gotten away with too much and was the target of too many investnts by her to think he couldn’t redefine their relationship bit by bit. “I do not enjoy being used, Nathalia, and I especially do not enjoy being taken for granted. What I do with you, I do because I like it as much as you do. If that’s not the case, you won’t get what you want either.”
Nathalia pressed a rumbling growl out of her throat. Fire pushed out between clenched, carnivorous teeth. Her lips peeled back to an inhumane degree. She inhaled deeply and took a step forward. John stood his ground. “Whatever,” she finally spat out and pushed the third shard into his hand. “This one you best feed to that creation of yours.”
Latent power tingled in the Gar’s hand, the shard radiating lingering divinity. “Ehm… could you create a fourth item instead? I think I would get a bigger bonus fro-“
“I lack the ability to create more items for you. Bother sobody else,” Nathalia snapped at him, claws tearing into the air itself. It did not take an especially wise man to realize that he had pushed her as far as he could, so he just shut up and watched the cracks spread through the air.
He realized imdiately what was happening. Nathalia was tearing her way back into the Illusion Barrier she had abducted him from – and was having a hard ti of it. The initially casual gesture changed to a strained, two-handed prying. The Protected Space was clearly fighting to keep her out and it was almost working.
‘Magoi really is worth 500 billion, huh?’ John thought.
However good Magoi was, it was not enough to keep Nathalia out. The tear opened wider and wider. “I fulfilled my end of this bargain,” Nathalia declared, her shoulders trembling. “Survive, John, I demand you return my investnt. When I feel like it, I will find you again.” With those words, she widened the gap to a level that John could walk through. “Now, leave.”
The edges of the tear were trembling and it would doubtlessly take very little ti for it to close again. Still, John took the gesture to place a quick kiss on the cheek of the dragoness. The quick gesture of affection made her jolt back in surprise. “Thank you,” was all John had to say, before jumping through the tear. Whether by happenstance or because of an embarrassed goddess, it slamd shut right behind him.
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